I got my copy of Wolf Print today, the great little magazine from the UK Wolf Conservation Trust. Presenting there was always a thrill. Not only does Toni Shelbourne do fine editorial work, and they have splendid, generous enclosures for the wolves, but their shop and education centre is really well done. In the heart of ordinary farmland, in Berkshire, young and old can touch something of the call of the wild, and if you look at their website they are doing great work around the world. There link is
Poets and Polar Bears
Now we’re getting a little weirded out because, republishing a poem by George Herbert today, in The Poet’s Sweatshop, to praise the genius of the Metaphysical Poets, we looked him up on Wikipedia, to discover not only was he Welsh, and went to Westminster School, but he was also Member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire. So what, we’re all linked, as we travel in the world with two languages, side by side, brilliant science, and brilliant ‘spirit’. It may be for particular tastes, but it’s beautiful, a gift to life, and we’re convinced it’s from here the triumphant Phillip Pullman borrowed his idea for ‘Dust’ in Northern Lights, also a land of wounded then femininely rearmed Polar Bears, courtesy of Lyra’s brave heart and silver tongue. You can also read it
Filed under Poetry
Protected: Changing my mind, and being a ‘rebel’ publisher, by just speaking out and telling the truth.
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Filed under Non Fiction, The Phoenix Story
Quote of the week
‘All bad art is the result of good intention’ Oscar Wilde, De Profundis
Filed under The Phoenix Story
Headings…
We’re not sure we like the new logo, now fully and ‘professionally’ set in the frame, but we would love to know your thoughts. As, if it interests, we want to create a separate page ‘forum’ for thoughts on Dragon Post, as it unfolds, the whole publisher’s style, and reactions to coming Imprint designs, for Wildcall and Thumbmarks too. Be frank, be critical, be supportive, be whatever you like, though we can’t promise to publish comments. As for different age-range story excerpts up online, The Poet’s Sweatshop is not really for younger readers, though with everything thrown at us nowadays, we believe people mostly read or absorb what they like, and are sure can cope with the meaning of words on a page. In terms of spelling, some don’t realise different spellings in the US and UK. The excerpt from Scream of the White Bears is is in US spelling, other work in British spelling. As for Dragon Post, you must forgive gruff screeds about copyright, below a free story, but it’s standard form and we haven’t worked out the style and size yet! It’s not to put people off, just to make it clear a writer would love to hear from you, but doesn’t want any lines confused, as he works on it. The first little change is that it’s not right an egg-box is delivered from Phoenix Ark. The real publisher is the publisher, the world inside a book, it’s own. So…how about Curly Tail Press? The next instalment rather depends on what the weather’s like in
Filed under Childrens Books, Publishing, The Phoenix Story
Every day, apples fall onto heads…
Today Phoenix Ark Press publish a new poem in The Poet’s Sweatshop – Letter to A Queen, by Santiago Elordi. It is addressed directly to Queen Elizabeth herself, and we think he should win a prize alone for the line ‘Every day, apples fall onto heads, but nothing occurs to anyone’! Santiago is a prize-winning Chilean novelist, and recently appointed Chilean Cultural attaché to Rome. If its greatest theme is the pointlessness of poetry, in today’s world, or its vanishing voice, perhaps he is wrong, because, filled with the melancholia of cultural mis-translations, and the longing of strangers abroad, it slow-burns with a poet’s incandescent anguish for the turning world and vanishing civilisations, or even just a new voice for ‘the Poets of Nothing’. Click
Filed under Poetry
Trying things out and winning prizes
Just had an imaginary slap from a friend, and am well rebuked, so I have taken away a previous post, that’s supposed to tell ‘the world’ anything at all. Whatever the hurt, my duty as an author is to my readers, in the books alone. To inspire, reassure, challenge and entertain. Not to air private indignation, or what only sometimes happens in the publishing world. This publisher is trying on its skin, hence the changed and more readable format, I hope, and everyone alive should feel safe, and happy in their own skin. I’m a bit miffed at having to apologise all over the place for things, for instance cancelling a bear book, in the first place, but if I’ve worried readers and they’ve asked others about it, we they should if it upsets, they can contact me here. Please don’t be worried, life is extraordinary, and so too are stories, and we’re all in it together, though often battling too. The warmest wishes and thanks to anyone who has written to the blog, and though this is a site for several writers, childrens and adult, I hope any let down to my fans is compensated for by a new and free adventure. If, in the coming weeks, a suggestion does strongly affect the course of a story, you can win signed copies of two of my novels, with a serialized, spontaneous act of storytelling in
Filed under Childrens Books, The Phoenix Story
Baby dragons in the post!
We’ve been asked by a friend as far afield as Texas how often Dickens, or Conan Doyle, serialized their stories, and we’re afraid we don’t know. Bi-monthly, perhaps, but it’s probably on Wikepedia. But frequency of Dragon Posts depend a lot on you, the reader, and your own hunger for story, and desire to engage directly. As indeed does Phoenix Ark, to build a new, defiant publisher, in the face of much of the pulp thrown out, in the name of culture, story or adventure. We swallow so much of it, because publishers pay for space and knock out competition. As for dragons coming everyone’s way, and your thoughts on a story, you have to be in it to win it, so do join in
Filed under Childrens Books, Publishing, The Phoenix Story
Dragons in Dens and joining the story
Those who know the Brit tv addiction Dragon’s Den, and interested in the baby Phoenix, will be delighted to know that another investor hopped on board today. He was convinced that conventional publishers are shooting themselves in the foot, by their aggression and over control, that drives out the talent in the end. That stories too, one day, will come from the source. Bravo!
Talking of dragons, come and join Phoenix Ark for a brand new adventure, free. If Charles Dickens or Conan Doyle could create stories, as they lived their lives, and hoped to grip the reader as they were serialised, so we hope to as well. Click on DRAGON POST, in the pages on the top right, or if you are just on this page, click Pheonix Ark Blog right at the top, and be the first to join a story, as it unfolds! It is raw, largely unedited, was written and posted immediately, and as a kind of storytelling Masterclass, will only be changed as later bits of the story fall into place. Please send in your approval, horror, worries or suggestions for where you want it to go, although the author can promise nothing about what he finds out on the fiery journey. Or try the link
Filed under Publishing, The Phoenix Story
Blogging, publishing, advertising or selling out?
What’s the difference between a blog and ‘real publishing’? Some friends say they’d rather suck lemons than read blogs, and wonder why so many people think their lives, or their words, so interesting or important. After having my voice so distorted, I’m rather on the side of freedom of speech, as a very first principle, and the best blogs are actually like books, or little self publishing satelites. Then comes any confusion here between a private blog, and a new publishing website. You assume any publisher bringing out books is effectively plugging its own choices, although Phoenix Ark have not yet started trading, but the reason for a blog/website is not only expense, but a publisher led by its artist and creatives, founded for and with respect for authors. So too an attempt to kick start a debate, or certainly a conversation among readers, writers, independent publishers, even the giants, about freedom, books, quality and the market place. Phoenix Ark hope as many as possible will join, young and old, corporate or independent. In time the founder’s ‘blogging’ voice will drop away, and let all our books and authors speak for themselves, but there’s a vital debate to be had. Is the world publishing too much, is quality coming to the front, how are writers protected in a cut-throat and often cynical environment, and does the little guy, or the little publisher, have a chance inside the machine, with booksellers, reps and distributors, to reach its readers and survive commericially? The books and stories are what count, vitally, but perhaps only time will tell if Phoenixes go up in flames, although those mythical beasts, in the best sense, always have the especially persistent and magical talent of rising from the ashes and spreading their wings!
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Filed under Publishing
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